Portable cigarette making machine



March 23, 1943p K. J. PTASRHK PORTABLE CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE Filed Feb. 24, 1940 2 Sheeis ASheet 1 INVENTOR #5 344 JOSEF' Pmsw/k Filed Feb. 24, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m m/ R 5 OF w w M M Q M k W? Z (b Patented Mar. 23, 1943 'UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PORTABLE CIGARETTE MAKING MACHINE Kelman Josef Ptasnik, New York, N. Y.

Application February 24, 1940, Serial No. 320,578

(01. lei-var 3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in or 4 relating to portable cigarette making machines, and deals more particularly with the method of preparing and the apparatus for treating the tobacco prior to its insertion within the cigarette paper tube.

It is an object of the present invention to take advantage of certain inherent characteristics of the shredded tobacco to facilitate placing of the tobacco within the paper tube or wrapper.

It is another object of the present invention to cause the exuding or volatilization of foreign and inherent substances usually contained in the granular or shredded tobacco by ray treatment whereby to assist forward transportation of the tobacco filler into said wrapper or tube. Such substances may be the grit, moisture and/ or oily. admixture either inherent in or added to the tobacco proper.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide means for treating the tobacco prior to and during its insertion within said wrapper.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide means for improving the taste and quality of the tobacco of the cigarette by heat and/or light ray treatment prior to the insertion of the tobacco in the tube or wrapper.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide means for imparting heat to the tobacco mass while in the state of being rolled to form a complete cigarette.

Yet, another object'of the present invention resides in the provision of means either in connection with said heat imparting means or not, to subject said tobacco to efiective light and beneficially conditioning treatment while the formation of the cigarette takes place.

A still further object of the present invention contemplates the provision of means for imparting a roasting or roasting-like effect to the ciga- 'rette during the steps of its formation in said portable cigarette machine.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following dis.- closure thereof together with the attached drawings which illustrate certain forms of embodiments thereof. These forms are shown for the purpose of illustrating the invention since the same has been found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, although it is to be understood that the various parts of which the invention consist can be variously arranged and organized and that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangement and organization of the instrumentalities as herein shown and described.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan View of a cigarette forming device incorporating features of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary bottom plan view showing the lower left-hand corner of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken in the plane of line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 2 and illustrating an alternate form of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a further enlarged fragmentary sectional View as taken in the plane of line 5--5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view illustrating another form of cigarette making deviceand provided with another embodiment of the invention.

Hand-operated cigarette machines of the heretofore known types have not given altogether satisfactory results, one of the main reasons being that due consideration is not given to the fact that the tobacco is hygroscopic and consequently varies in quality and characteristics during atmospheric changes, such as humidity and temperature, which results in that the tobacco bunches and agglomerates, and also becomes glutinous, thereby producing a non-uniform packing or filling of the cigarette wrapper. The tobacco filler stringer is also thereby retarded in its movement through the machine parts which form and act upon said filler and which become gritty and cause piercing and bursting of the paper tube during the injecting of the compressed filler therewithin or cause clogging and choking of said filler thus making it difficult to draw upon the cigarette.

Under dry weather conditions the tobacco loses its natural resiliency or flexibility, as the aromatic constituents or ingredients which are mostly of a greasy nature, become brittle or crystallize due to the dryness of the atmosphere and the coldness surrounding the surface of the shredded tobacco. The tobacco shred has the tendency to pulverize and break up in particles, which arelost or fall out of the cigarette manufactured from such tobacco. During smoking of such cigarettes lighted tobacco particles having no hold are separated from the filler mass, drop out of saidmass thereby creating a hazard while being spread around. Besides this, aromatic flavors are minimized because of the disintegra: tion of the shreds and their transformation into fine dust particles which are lost during the making of the cigarette.

v The present invention seaks to overcome the above disadvantages and to improve the heretofore known cigarette machines whereby a considerable quality increase of the tobacco shreds is obtained and an ideal disinfection is accomplished.

Referring now particularly to the drawings,

Fig. 1 shows a top plan View of a hand-operated cigarette making device embodying the invention. The operation of said device per se is well known in the art and is disclosed in British Patent No. 464,948. The device has a housing It! through the top H of which projects a shaft l2 carrying a handle l3. Secured to shaft I2 is a plate I4 having an eccentric slot H3 in which is guided a pin 16 connected to bar I! of a lever system l8. Said lever system [8 comprises the pivoted arms I9, and 2|, 22, arms 19 and 20 being fixed to the housing as indicated at 23, 24. Secured to the arms 20, 22 is the plate jaw having a channel or groove 25a. It is evident that rotational movement of handle l3 will cause lateral movement of jaw 25. Secured to the underside of top H of housing I9 is a closure plate 26 upon the upper surface of which slides said jaw 25.

Loosely mounted for rotation on shaft I2 is a lever arm 21' having a link 28 pivoted to said lever arm 21 at 29. The free end of link 28 is articulated by means of a pin 30 to the ejector 3!, which is guided in a slotted tubular member 32 connecting with said closure plate 26. Projecting from a side wall of said housing It) is a tubular stub 33 which is substantially in alignment with the rear wall 34 of closure plate 26, said rear wall 34 being arcuate in section forming a channel slidably engaging spoon member 35 of ejector 3|.

As is well known the paper tube to be filled with tobacco is placed with its forward end on said stub 33. Tobacco (not shown) is then placed through slot 4| of top I l into receptacle 42 formed by the movable channeled wall 25a, end walls 43 of plate 26, spoon member 35 and bottom wall 44.

Now by rotation of handle l3 and by virtue of the eccentric and lever arrangement referred to above, plate jaw 25 in its movement toward the tobacco shreds will compress the latter between its channeled wall 25a and the spoon member 35 providing a compact cylindrical mass filler therebetween (no-t shown). Said channeled wall 25a and spoon 35 when brought together by the aforesaid mechanical action form a tubular enclosure. As disclosed in the aforesaid British patent, further rotation of handle l3 results in the ejector movement along said rear wall 34 carrying with it the cylindrical filler guided by said spoon member 35 into said paper tube 45 through said stub 33; the ejection of the cylindrically formed filler being made possible by the forward movement and pushing action of the solid portion 35a of the ejector 3!, the wall 35b abutting against the inner end of said filler. Provision is made to intermittently clamp the paper tube end against the tubular stub33 for which purpose there is arranged a cam lever 45 pivotally supported at 46a on bottom plate 44. This lever 45 is controlled in its movement by a pin 46 projecting from arm 2'! and has a projection 41 extending through a slot 48 beyond housing 10. This projection carries an upright rubber covered stud 49 reciprocating toward and away from said stub 33 during operation of said device, as it is evident from Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings. Paper tube considerably mild as well as tasty.

end 40a may thus be clamped between stud 49 and stub 33.

Reference will now be made to the instrumentalities for the treatment of the tobacco to carry out the invention. To this end, the above described device for making cigarettes may be provided with heating implements whereby it is made possible directly before or during the making of the cigarette to subject the same to a heating or roasting operation in a degree depending upon the provenience, condition, and quality of tobacco shreds selected. The roasting operation can be brought about by the tobacco filler forming parts of the device or directly in the hopper or receiver containing the shredded tobacco. This treatment has the purpose of causing evaporation of moisture which may be contained in the tobacco. Simultaneously the aromatic substances above referred to are uniformly distributed in the tobacco mass due to the softness produced therein. This softness is caused by loosening the aromatic substance constituents in the tobacco mass, which revives the crisp tobacco shreds and imparts the initial flexibility to the shredded tobacco, whereby the brittleness and the intensity to pulverize during the making of the cigarette is effectively avoided and the transportation of the compressed tobacco filler to the cigarette paper tube is considerably facilitated due to the fact that the said constituents act as a lubricant of the tobacco filler while the said compressed tobacco filler is being moved within the machine parts.

By heat treating to r-Oasting" temperature, thetobacco shreds are liberated from the biting effect or action and the cigarette becomes This treatment contributes to the possibility to impart to the tobacco shreds prior to their formation into the filler stringer with aroma-giving substances which may be added to the tobacco mass whereby the'heat treatment serves the purpose of uniformly distributing the thus incorporated substances in the tobacco mass or filler. Finally, this mentioned treatment which may take place simultaneously with or preceding an ozonizing effect acts as a disinfectant and avoids moldy formation.

The above advantages may be accomplished, for instance, by the following construction. Within housing Hi and in proximity to bottom plate 44 there is installed an electric heat and light rays emitting device 50 which is supported on bracket 5| and to which lead the conductors 52 from a suitable power source (not shown). Any convenient and known regulating devices may be employed to keep temperature and light intensity uniform and to regulate the same according to circumstances required. In bottom plate 44 there are provided windows 53 and 54 through which heat and light rays are transferred from said device 50 to tobacco shreds 55 placed in the receptacle 42 (Fig. 3). In order to increase the effectiveness of said'heat and light rays emitting device a suitable screen 57 may be provided on the said device 50 to direct the said rays toward said windows. The windows 53 and 54 may be made of any suitable transparent or translucent material.

Figs. 4 and 5 showa modification of the invention in which heating means (preferably electrical) are contained within the plate jaw 25 which is composed of the plies 60, BI, and 62, the heating element 63 being positioned between plies 6B and 62 and in direct contact with ply 6].

As it will be noted from the drawings (Figs. 4 and 5) the heating unit 63 of conventional type is an indirect heating means and movable with plate jaw 25b. It is otherwise understood that jaw 25b functions in a manner similar to that of jaw 25 of Figs. 1 to 3. Disposed adjacent to and in contact with closure plate 26 is a second heating unit 64 which is preferably stationary and conducts heat therefrom to the ejector 3| and spoon 35 so that the shredded tobacco (not shown) contained in receptacle 42 (Fig. 5) will be heated prior to its filler formation by heating units 63 and 64 up to a temperature at which greasy ingredients are sweated out or exuded from said shredded tobacco. Current is transmitted to heating unit 64 of any known construction by cable 65 from a power source (not shown). It is to be understood that the heat radiated from the said heating units may adequately be regulated by any automatic means, for example, thermostat (not shown) Fig. 6 shows a cigarette making device in another form essentially comprising a hopper 66, paper tube receiver 61 connected to a sleeve 68, and a handle 69 actuating an endless worm M to forwardly move tobacco shreds 10 within said hopper 66. Linked to hopper 66 is a lid H which supports a heating or heat and light rays projecting unit 12, current to which is fed by cable 13.

When the lid or cover 1 I is closed heat and light are radiated and impinge up the tobacco shreds H1 within said hopper 66. Since the tobacco mass while moving the worm 14 is presented to unit 12 in different layers the said tobacco shreds receive a substantially uniform treatment from said unit 12. The cigarette making mechanism of the device shown in Fig. 6 may be any of the well known constructions.

Although I have described my improvements with considerable detail and with respect to certain particular forms of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to such details since many changes and modifications in the form, arrangements, proportions and sizes thereof may well be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention in its broadest aspect.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is:

1. A method of preparing shredded tobacco in cigarette machines which consists in subjecting said tobacco to heat treatment during its formation to a cigarette filler, maintaining said heat treatment until greasy ingredients of the tobacco are liberated to thereby cause spreading of said ingredients to the surface of the tobacco shreds constituting the cigarette filler, and moving said tobacco filler while said ingredients are in spread condition.

2. In a portable cigarette making machine, a receptacle for receiving shredded tobacco therein, filler forming members movable relatively to each other and arranged in said receptacle, and heating means in proximity to said members to impart heat to said tobacco while the tobacco is between said filler forming members.

3. In a cigarette making machine, a receptacle for receiving tobacco shreds therein, means for heat treating said tobacco, means for forming a tobacco filler, and means for moving said filler to a cigarette Wrapper, said heat treating means comprising a stationary and a movable heater, respectively located adjacent said filler forming means.

KELMAN JOSEF PTASNIK. 

